Cacapon Resort State Park, West Virginia

We visited the Cacapon Resort State Park in West Virginia because my niece has been working there over the summer as a naturalist. The park spreads over six thousand acres and was originally developed as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Some of the old log cabins are still there. The park has lots of places to stay, a fancy lodge with restaurant, a golf course, a lake for swimming and canoeing, and many other amenities. As you can imagine, we visited the nature center to see family.

Thomas D. Ambrose Nature Center

The center is surrounded (almost) by a flower garden that supports various pollinators, including a milkweed section for migrant monarch butterflies. 

Milkweed section

Inside are a good variety of exhibits. One sand table is set up with a projector and computer to show how water flows over terrain. My kids enjoyed reshaping the "mountains" to see where the water went.

Fun with sand

A model displays the park, which is on the side of Cacapon Mountain.

The park inside the park

Like many nature centers, it has a lot of preserved animals on display.

Admiring a noble deer

My scout animal!

So nice, we show it twice!

Not a house cat

Mink

A set of foxes is called a "skulk" or "leash"

Skulls

Weasel and shrew

Canada goose and turkey

Red and blue birds

Outside is a photo op that two of my three children took advantage of.

Look at me!

We did a river exploration activity that taught us about what kind of critters live in, on, and under the water. After a short presentation, we went to the river and did some searching with nets.

More of a stream, actually

Hunting for fish and other water dwellers

Bringing out a catch

Crawfish in the corner

Nearby are miniature replicas of the original log cabins and the fire tower.

How they used to make them

We drove up one of the roads to the overlook where we had a good view of the valley.

Swinging at the overlook

Valley view

More valley

The golf course below

The road

We went to the lake for some swimming. The water was fresh but cold, noticeably so in deeper water. The swimming area doesn't get more than five and a half feet deep, so it's easy for an adult to get around.

Bath house

Beach and lake

We came back at night for a campfire that included songs, scary stories, and roasting marshmallows. It was a lot of fun but I did not get any pictures. Somebody took a picture with my wife's phone of us practicing a campfire song. 

Singing along